Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com with something; but I did not pursue the question in my
mind, for dinner was just then announced, and we went
down and took the same seats as before.
We had scarcely done so, when Uriah Heep put in his red
head and his lank hand at the door, and said:
‘Here’s Mr. Maldon begs the favour of a word, sir.’
‘I am but this moment quit of Mr. Maldon,’ said his mas-
ter.
‘Yes, sir,’ returned Uriah; ‘but Mr. Maldon has come back,
and he begs the favour of a word.’
As he held the door open with his hand, Uriah looked
at me, and looked at Agnes, and looked at the dishes, and
looked at the plates, and looked at every object in the room,
I thought, - yet seemed to look at nothing; he made such
an appearance all the while of keeping his red eyes duti-
fully on his master. ‘I beg your pardon. It’s only to say, on
reflection,’ observed a voice behind Uriah, as Uriah’s head
was pushed away, and the speaker’s substituted - ‘pray ex-
cuse me for this intrusion - that as it seems I have no choice
in the matter, the sooner I go abroad the better. My cousin
Annie did say, when we talked of it, that she liked to have
her friends within reach rather than to have them banished,
and the old Doctor -’
‘Doctor Strong, was that?’ Mr. Wickfield interposed,
gravely.
‘Doctor Strong, of course,’ returned the other; ‘I call him
the old Doctor; it’s all the same, you know.’
‘I don’t know,’ returned Mr. Wickfield.
‘Well, Doctor Strong,’ said the other - ‘Doctor Strong